New documents in a lawsuit against New Mexico Corrections Department Secretary Alisha Tafoya Lucero allege that state probation officers’ practice of referring undocumented probationers to federal agents for deportation occurred more extensively than previously known, and continued well after state lawmakers banned such referrals in 2025.
Emails between federal agents and state probation officers, as well as other records attached as exhibits to a State Ethics Commission court filing last week, also allege the probation officers referred their probationers to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency at the behest of their supervisors at the Corrections Department.
Initially, in its September lawsuit prompted by a whistleblower complaint, the Commission alleged that probation officers lured three undocumented probationers under false pretenses to various statewide probation offices, where ICE agents were waiting to arrest them for potential deportation.
The probation department referred at least 20 additional probationers to ICE between October 2024 and May 2026, based on a Source NM review of emails in the new filing, and regularly tipped off ICE agents when a probationer was scheduled for a probation appointment.
In at least seven of the cases, ICE ultimately deported the probationers to Mexico or elsewhere, according to the emails. In five cases, probation officers mistakenly believed people they supervised were undocumented, and referred United States citizens or lawful permanent residents to the agency.
At least five referrals occurred after July 1, 2025, when a state law went into effect prohibiting state employees from providing immigration or other sensitive personal information to anyone outside of the agency except in limited circumstances.
The Ethics Commission included the new text messages, emails, deposition transcripts and other evidence in a 225-page filing July 2 that urges a state district court judge to allow the Commission to enforce the 2025 state law, known as the the Nondisclosure of Sensitive Personal Information Act, which empowers the Commission to bring action against potential violators. That would allow the Commission to bring a second lawsuit against Tafoya Lucero under the state’s new law.
First Judicial District Court Matthew Wilson’s approval is necessary, Commission Executive Director Jeremy Farris wrote, especially since the Commission recently received information showing the violations occurred at all levels.
The Ethics Commission declined to comment on the filing, citing ongoing litigation.
In addition to the new details about referrals, the Commission’s lawsuit also relays a whistleblower account alleging that the Correction Department’s in-house counsel, in a meeting in mid-May of this year with probation supervisors, told them to conduct certain communications “telephonically,” potentially to evade the Commission’s continued investigation into the department.
At the same meeting, according to the filing, the department’s deputy cabinet secretary said that when she finds out the identity of the whistleblower who prompted the Commission’s September lawsuits, “They are going to get it.”
Corrections Department spokesperson Brittany Roembach told Source NM that the department declined to comment on the litigation.
“Generally speaking, however, we meet with and train probation and parole staff on a regular basis, to ensure that they are aware of current laws, policies, and expectations while supervising individuals in our communities,” she said in an email.
Most of the emails revealed in the filings transpired between probation officer Joanna Bojorquez-Cárdenas and ICE deportation officer Matthew Salcido between November 2024 and May of this year.
Bojorquez-Cárdenas did not respond to Source NM’s request for comment Thursday. Salcido declined to comment.
In addition to the exchanges about individual probationers, the emails reveal a close working relationship between the two, including discussions of vacations and job opportunities, and suggest that ICE agents like Salcido were under pressure to arrest and deport as many immigrants as possible shortly after President Donald Trump was inaugurated for a second term in January 2025.
“Have any more for us?” Salcido asked Bojorquez-Cárdenas via email Feb. 4, 2025. “They’re pushing us pretty hard for arrests.”
Bojorquez-Cárdenas replied that she didn’t. “But I will let you know!” she wrote.
In a deposition transcript contained in the filing, Bojorquez-Cárdenas testified that NMCD Probation Supervisor Brent Hopper instructed her and fellow probation officers to “reach out to ICE regarding your probationers who are undocumented,” although she didn’t recall when he had done so.
Hopper declined to comment Thursday.
The filings contain text messages and emails from two other probation officers and ICE to coordinate federal arrests of New Mexico probationers.
An ICE spokesperson also declined to comment Thursday, citing the pending litigation.
Sen. Antoinette Sedillo-Lopez, who sponsored the bill making such referrals illegal, reviewed the filing Thursday and told Source NM she was “disturbed and shocked” at the joy probation officers seemingly experienced when they succeeded in deporting a probationer.
She noted that Salcido wrote “Oh damn!” when he discovered that a Mexican probationer Bojorquez-Cárdenas referred his way was protected from deportation under federal law because he was a Lawful Permanent Resident and his conviction was “only a misdemeanor.”
Sedillo-Lopez said she is going to refer the filing, which she was unaware of until Source NM’s inquiry Thursday, to the interim legislative Courts and Corrections Committee for review at an upcoming hearing. The committee drafts criminal justice policy and exercises oversight of state law enforcement agencies.
“To me, it just looks really bad for the supervisors and for the whole agency,” she said.
